Dr. Laura Plencner is a pediatric hospitalist at Children’s Mercy. She completed her residency and chief residency at Children’s Mercy and joined the pediatric hospital medicine faculty in 2013. She is passionate about addressing barriers to optimal health in children and their families and has an interest in finding innovative ways for the healthcare system to address social determinants of health including food insecurity. With a colleague she developed and co-chairs the Children’s Mercy Hunger Free Hospital Council with the goal of leading multidisciplinary strategies to improve the food security of the Children’s Mercy patients and Kansas City community and seeks to implement and evaluate programs to improve the nutrition security of children and families.